Jae Sung Jung

Jayce September 6, 2024 3 0

Character Introduction

Jung Jae Sung (Korean: 정재성, August 25, 1982 – March 9, 2018) was a retired South Korean male badminton player, who was ranked the highest in the world with his partner Lee Yong-dae.The duo were runners-up in the men’s doubles tournament of the World Badminton Championships in 2007 and 2009, and won the men’s doubles bronze medal at the 2012 London Olympics.He died in March 2018 at the age of 35 after a sudden death. He died in March 2018 at the age of 35 after suffering a heart attack.

Jung was introduced to badminton by his teacher when he was nine years old. 2000, Jung participated in the Asian Youth Championships in Kyoto as a member of the Korean youth team, winning second place in the men’s doubles and third place in the men’s team, and then third place in the mixed team at the World Youth Championships in Guangzhou. 2003, Jung Jae-sung and Lee Jae-jin represented Wonkwang University and won the men’s doubles title at the Korean National Championships in Gyeonggi-do, and the following year they won the men’s doubles title. In 2003, Jung Jae-sung and Lee Jae-jin played for Wonkwang University at the Korean National Championships in Gyeonggi-do and won the Men’s Doubles title, which they defended the following year.

After the 2004 Athens Olympics, Jung Jae-sung and Lee Jae-jin started to appear in international tournaments due to the retirement of the veterans in the team, and the two of them won the Thailand Open, the second place in the Asian Badminton Championships, and advanced to the semifinals of the German Badminton Open and the Singapore Badminton Open in 2005. Jung Jae-sung later teamed up with Lee Yong-dae, a six-years younger star in the team, and achieved good results in the early stages of their partnership, winning the German and Thailand Open titles, and winning the Men’s Doubles Bronze Medal (losing to Luluk Hadyanto/Alvente Yulianto) and the Men’s Team Silver Medal (losing to China) in the Asian Games Badminton Championships.

In January 2007, Jung Jae-sung/Lee Yong-dae won their only title of the year, defeating teammates Lee Jae-jin/Hwang Ji-wan in straight sets (21-16, 21-15) in the final of the Korea Badminton Super Tournament.

In August 2007, Jung Jae Sung/Lee Yong Dae were seeded 13th in the Men’s Doubles event at the World Badminton Championships in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. In the end, Jung Jae-sung/Lee Yong-dae lost to Malkis Kido/Hendra Setiawan of Indonesia in straight sets (19-21, 19-21) in the final, collecting the second place.

After the 2007 World Championships, Jung and Lee did not perform as well as expected in the Open Championships, except for reaching the semi-finals of the 2007 Badminton Superseries in France, the rest of the tournaments stopped at the last eight, and it was only in the 2008 Badminton Grand Prix in Germany that they reached the final again, and eventually lost to teammates Lee Jae-jin/Hwang Ji-wan, who finished as the runners-up.

Jung Jae-sung and Lee Yong-dae were regarded as South Korea’s medal hopes in badminton prior to the Beijing Olympics because of their excellent results in the first half of 2008 and their consecutive victories over their main rivals from Indonesia and China in the Thomas Cup. They entered the men’s doubles event as the 3rd seed of the tournament and met Danish veterans Jonas Rasmussen/Lars Pask in the first round, where they were eventually defeated by the Danish pair in straight sets (21-16, 21-19).

In November 2010, Jung Jae-sung represented South Korea at the Guangzhou Asian Games, competing in the men’s doubles (with Lee Yong-dae) and men’s team events, winning one silver and one bronze.

On May 3, 2012, Jung Jae-sung/Lee Yong-dae qualified for the Men’s Doubles event at the Summer Olympics and were seeded second in the tournament, returning to the top spot in the world rankings on the eve of the Games, making them one of the favorites to win the title. After losing the semifinal match 1-2 (21-17, 18-21, 20-22) to Denmark’s Mathias Bowie/Karsten Mogensen, Jae-Sung won the bronze medal with a 2-0 (23-21, 21-10) win over Malaysia’s Koo Kien Keat/Tan Boon Hong, which was also the curtain call of Jae-Sung’s career.

On September 10, 2012, Jung Jae-sung officially retired from the Badminton World Federation. After his retirement, Jung was briefly employed by the Korean national team as the men’s doubles coach before moving to Samsung Electro-Mechanics Badminton as the head coach.

Jung Jae-sung, who was last seen in public as a flame bearer during the 2018 Winter Olympics, died suddenly at the age of 35 on March 9, 2018, when he was found by his wife at their home in Hwaseong. Jung’s death coincided with the 2018 German Open Badminton Championships, so before the start of the tournament on March 10, all members of the South Korean team who were competing in the tournament circled around the court to observe a minute’s silence in his honor, and on March 11, a funeral was held at the funeral home of the Ajou University Hospital in South Korea.